Here's my reply to that...

[Click to view comic: 'DexX sings "Winter" from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons"...']

Damn... dontcha hate it when you finish a strip, save it, then realise a) that there is an error (the mike stand changes height), and b) that there was a funnier way to do the joke? Oh well...

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perhaps the mike was aroused by your singing talent.

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- christ@myself.com - fuck a cat, kill yourself - my alter ego has five stars

*nods thoughtfully* Yeah, that seems likely.

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captain beefheart - safe as milk
pixies - surfer rosa
beatles - white album
nick drake - pink moon
taj mahal - hula blues
lambchop - nixon
van morrison - new york sessions 1967
joh martyn - solid air

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I LIVE!

Oh yeah, haven't done that yet, have I... let's see, frequent rotation CDs for me these days...

Peter Gabriel - PG4
The Whitlams - Eternal Nightcap (truly one of the greatest albums ever recorded) and Love This City
Neil Finn - Try Whistling This
Madness - The Heavy Heavy Hits
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Midnight Oil - Redneck Wonderland and 20,000 Watt R.S.L.
David Helfgott - Brilliantissimo
Paul Simon - Graceland
Tori Amos - All of her stuff, but mainly Winter EP, Boys for Pele and From the Choirgirl Hotel
Metallica - S&M and occasionally Load, Black Album, and Justice
Clannad - Banba and The Celtic Collection
Enya - Watermark

Urrr... and probably many others I have forgotten.

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Well, to Bunner, the fact is that these days, radio rock bites.
Back during the days of the first metal band, everything still had a name, it just wasn't as important, because everything was made with at least some amount of talent and heart. Now, the crap on the radio is calling itself metal, when it really is *not*. It's a clear mislabeling. You wouldn't call Deep Purple classical, would you?

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

The "rocked-up" version is presumably the Emerson, Lake & Palmer interpretation that showed up on "progressive" stations every now and then about two decades ago.

Oh, and I was going to put in a "Kaufman sings" comic too, but I couldn't remember if the John Cage tune I had in mind is called "4:35", or "4:32." I suppose, though, you could adjust the speed of your machine to have it come out right.

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ken.kaufman@gmail.com

http://www.themorningnews.org/explodingdog.html

Read the part about the Beatles at the very bottom of that page. I like me some Beatles, but I think it's a very good point.

I'm not "currently listening to" anything except the sound of my fingers on this keyboard. But in my car at the moment are the Foo Fighters' self-titled album and Clutch's Pitchfork. I like to think I enjoy a variety of music, though you wouldn't know it from looking at my CD towers, which are somewhat limited in scope. My Winamp playlist is a little better.

I once heard someone argue that Pennywise were not punk, but hardcore. This distinction seemed very important to them. I don't get it. If you ask me, a genre is just a way to help you locate the album you want in a record store. Aside from that, it's useless. Bands will play what they like and you'll listen to what you like, and everyone will be happy, except for Indy Rock Pete.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

Read the part about the Beatles at the very bottom of that page. I like me some Beatles, but I think it's a very good point.

It is a good point, but it says a lot about commercial radio, and very little about The Beatles. I would be willing to bet that if he had heard The One After 909, Hey Bulldog, or any number of other great Beatles tracks that are lost in obscurity because they were never released as singles, he would not have changed the station.

You will get sick of even your all-time favourite song if you hear it too often.

I once heard someone argue that Pennywise were not punk, but hardcore. This distinction seemed very important to them. I don't get it. If you ask me, a genre is just a way to help you locate the album you want in a record store. Aside from that, it's useless. Bands will play what they like and you'll listen to what you like, and everyone will be happy, except for Indy Rock Pete.

Precisely! I can't see why the whole music shop can't be arranged in one huge A-Z, by surname, band name, composer name, or movie/stage-show title for a soundtrack.

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Well, Pennywise is hardcore punk. Hardcore is a relly crappy subgenre of punk, focusing mostly on hate and angst.

I personally prefer a distinction in musical styles because there is some stuff I do not like. You don't want to tune into a classical radio station and hear Korn blaring at you, do you?
Well, maybe you do, but I do not, and a lot of people do not. For that reason, I'm sick of stuff like Shania Twain being called Country, Slipknot being called metal, and Blink182 being called punk. It's all pop. What most people call "pop" today would be better described as dance music. Pop still shouldn't be a genre, and stuff like Linkin Park *is* pop rock. It's very popular among the 16-25 year old males.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

stop yer winging and listen to some of the following

IKJD
phallicide
life sentence
mute conclusion
sightless riot
gay
sockmule
seven letters long
gitbus
sludgecore
chisomo

go on just try and tell me about the underground sukaaaaa

and if you have no idea what the hell Mr T's helluva night is or even MR T's helluva nite 2 Valentines day massacre or even T£ the return are then dont bother yourselves

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Who knows what fear lurks in the hearts of men? MIKE BOBSICO KNOWS! And if you give him a decent tip when he delivers your mail , he might tell you.

Every song on the Luaka Bop compilation, Zero Accidents on the Job, has been stuck in my head for about six months. It's masterful, except for this one song that sounds like late Steely Dan.

What else... here at work, I've got the Propellerheads' Decks, Drums, and Rock 'n' Roll, which I bought because I heard one of the songs on a car commercial-- "History Repeating," one of the coolest damned records I ever heard.

In the CD changer, I think it's REM, Mississippi John Hurt, Devo, and Babatunde Olatunji.

On the turntable, I've been going over some Reader's Digest 5-record sets of organ music from the 50s and 60s. Golden Organ Million Sellers kicks off with a rendition of "Tico Tico" that has it all and then some. It says "Lucy, I'm home" like nothing else. Another record in the set is titled "Organ Memories." Makes me think of a guy who's lost a kidney. I got these at a garage sale for five bucks because they wouldn't let me just take the Glenn Miller set that I wanted. They made me take the whole box of crap.

DexX, it would be impossible to underrate Billy Joel's songwriting.

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*choke* *plutter* Them's fightin wahrds, sah! Choose yah weapon - smoked herring at close range or Y-fronts at thirty paces... SAH!

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on the subject of incubus i dont know how you judge things in the states but we dont choose what bands are bad by which are on the radio. lack of airtime isnt a pre-requisit here for a band to be respected by musicians

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Who knows what fear lurks in the hearts of men? MIKE BOBSICO KNOWS! And if you give him a decent tip when he delivers your mail , he might tell you.

*choke* *plutter* Them's fightin wahrds, sah! Choose yah weapon - smoked herring at close range or Y-fronts at thirty paces... SAH!

I really should get his greatest hits album. What was it called again? Light in the Loafers, something like that?

I was going to write a sequel to "She's Always a Woman to Me" called "She's Sometimes a Man to You."

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Well, now I feel stupid. What country are you in?

Oh, and regarding what you actually said, some people are under the impression that if a lot of people like a certain performer, band, film, television show, et cetera, then said thing is necessarily bad. If you have ever read Diesel Sweeties (and if you haven't, shame on you!) then you will be familiar with Indy Rock Pete, who thinks that being indie/underground is far more important than actually being good.

Sure, tailoring something for the masses is generally a surefire to produce shit, but it is possible for something to become popular without it having been over-produced, test-screened, and engineered to be PG13/MTV/whatever. Sometimes true quality will actually generate success.

Hey, if I like an indy band, I hope and pray they will hit the big time, so that I will hear their stuff on the radio, so their CDs will be easier to find, so I will be more likely to see them on interview shows and in magazines, and not least so that a band I like can atually make some money for a change.

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I really should get his greatest hits album. What was it called again? Light in the Loafers, something like that?
I was going to write a sequel to "She's Always a Woman to Me" called "She's Sometimes a Man to You."

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"And So It Goes" Gahhhh that song brings back painful memories. I had the tape of that album and foundit under the seat of my car years later after my girlfriend and I broke up a few years ago and gahhhhh

Great song though.

I've never understood the whole "Indy Rock Pete" attitude where just because something is popular, it's bad, even if it is really good. My CD collection is a nice mix of lots of stuff. Yeah, there's alot of "commercial" stuff in there but I like it and it's usually quite good. Now I certainly don't buy anything just because it's popular (gahhh that's evil). I had Poe's first album (way better than her second one) back before she became popular and interacted with some fans online. There were actually fans that said they didn't want her to get popular because then they wouldn't like her. What?!? Huh?!? That's silly.

Currently listening to:
Weezer - Suzanne
Alice In Chains - Got Me Wrong
Bad Religion - assorted tracks
Butthole Surfers - The Shame Of Life
Cranes - Fuse
Hooverphonic - assorted tracks
Fait No More - Glory Box (cover of a Portishead track)
Radiohead - assorted tracks
Republica - From Rush Hour With Love
Soul Asylum - Can't Even Tell
Tom Jones & Portishead - Motherless Child
Trancenden - Faded Smiles
Portishead - assorted tracks

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"Fascist Clay was my most favorite totalitarian boxer!" - Indie Rock Pete from Diesel Sweeties

FUCK.
I wrote out a huge response about independant music and radio music and all that, but IE crashed.
Anyway, to summarize what I wrote:
I do not dislike radio music because it's on the radio, but because the majority of it is crap.

I do not like independant music because it is not on the radio, in fact, most of the bands I like are ON major record labels (Blind Guardian on Virgin, Cradle of Filth on Sony).

I am sick of the stereotypes of the fake-metal that gets radio play being forced onto REAL metalheads.

I dislike radio rock for the most part, but there ARE a few radio-rock bands I actually like (Tool and AC/DC come to mind).

Selling out usually comes with shitting-down your music for the majority's sake.

And a few things I should mention.
Just because people like it doesn't mean it's good.
Just because people don't like it doesn't mean it's bad.

And just because you think listening to Blind Melon is "underground" doesn't mean you are underground.

I don't CARE if something is underground, but I think the underground/independant bands need as much support as they can get, so long as they have the talent to warrant it. Some independant stuff sounds just like the crap on the radio, so I would never give them my money. Some stuff on the radio is extremely complex, and it just blows my mind that is is ON the radio, considernig the simple fifths-based or noise-based music common to the radio.

Also, I think "fuck your god" is getting a bit trite these days, especially from a pagan band... :\

In short, most radio rock sucks, a higher percentage of non-radio rock is brilliance.

So, listen to what you want, but don't call a calculator an AMD Thuunderbird.

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Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants.

Well, now I feel stupid. What country are you in?

england (so on general terms i am lying but those of us who conder ourselves the cognicenti of the nation are well spoken for)

thats why indy pete is sooo funny. i hate him and he gets burned bad! what we will now refer to as IPS or Indy Pete Syndrome really pisses me off

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Sure, tailoring something for the masses is generally a surefire to produce shit, but it is possible for something to become popular without it having been over-produced, test-screened, and engineered to be PG13/MTV/whatever. Sometimes true quality will actually generate success.

Hey, if I like an indy band, I hope and pray they will hit the big time, so that I will hear their stuff on the radio, so their CDs will be easier to find, so I will be more likely to see them on interview shows and in magazines, and not least so that a band I like can atually make some money for a change.

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Most people the world over judge what's good by what *is* played on the radio, including the USA. It's all they know. As for myself, the only time I liked the radio was when it was the early-mid 90s, and I could hear a lot of the early grunge music... that's it. After that, radio would occasionally play something good, but most of what they play now just doesn't do it for me. Had I never gotten online and discovered Napster, I'd never know about the music I love right now. I really don't care who or how many people agree with me about it, I just know what I like. And I share DexX's POV... The day that I can walk into a store and buy Shape of Despair, Skepticism, or Vintersorg's latest albums is a happy day.

I never said anything about Incubus' relative goodness/badness, all I said is that they're played on the radio and everyone knows of them... this is the definition of "pop." They are rock, too... hence "pop rock."

Some things about the music business that aren't immediately apparent: Rock radio is not really about music. It is about selling a certain audience to advertisers. The audience, not the record, is the product, and the advertiser, not the listener, is the customer.

It's a mistake to say that a radio station will play "whatever people like." It's more accurate to say they will play whatever they think the target market (nod to bunner) will like-- or rather, whatever will keep the target market tuned in. Similar as these propositions sound, they are very different pictures of what is going on in the music biz. For instance, let's say Record A is a surefire hit amongst the two million migrant farm workers, vegan eco-terrorists, and Franciscan monks in your broadcast area; and Record B is a surefire hit amongst the 50,000 single males with incomes over $30,000. Advertisers want the latter audience, and so most stations will play Record B, and so, all other things being equal, B will outsell A, even though A is potentially more "popular."

It's still not quite right to say that stations will play "whatever will keep the target market tuned in." The audience must be delivered to the advertiser in good condition. So you're not going to hear a whole lot of songs about not buying stuff, or anything specifically (note I said specifically) critical of industrial life. Sure, you hear "shocking" and "outrageous" stuff on the radio, but (conspicuously) nothing that challenges business interests. Same goes for the kind of "rebellion" that's permitted-- whiny angst, aimless rage, vague compassion, but nothing very concrete. So rock radio is surprisingly conventional, once you get past the costumes and the posturing.

These are just a few of the market forces that have rendered the term "popular music" all but meaningless. But I've already gone and out-bunnered bunner, so I guess I'll stop here.

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And a few things I should mention.
Just because people like it doesn't mean it's good.
Just because people don't like it doesn't mean it's bad.

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thats why indy pete is sooo funny. i hate him and he gets burned bad! what we will now refer to as IPS or Indy Pete Syndrome really pisses me off

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I grew up listening to Billy Joel, from Piano Man forward. It fucked up my sense of values. For example, I couldn't see anything wrong with an analogy between "six-gun" and "six-pack," or "outlaw gunman" and "lounge singer." But with help, I've begun the long crawl back to civilization. And you can too.

(I know, I know... people in glass houses... wait, where have I heard that?)

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